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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had a written policy instructing
agents to alter details of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
investigations to hide the trail of tips the agencies exchange,
according to a Reuters report released on Wednesday.

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The report says the Justice Department is reviewing an IRS manual published online in 2005 and 2006 that “instructed agents of the U.S. tax agency to
omit any reference to tips supplied by the DEA's Special Operations
Division, especially from affidavits, court proceedings or
investigative files.”

The Special Operations Division of the DEA feeds tips culled from a
National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program to the IRS, which
uses the information to investigate potential crimes.

IRS agents were instructed to “recreate” the chain of information to
shield the DEA as the source of the information, according to the
report.

The DEA contends that the practice is legal, has been used daily for
about two decades, and is necessary to protect the agency’s sources
and methods.

The NSA program in question is separate from the controversial
programs Edward Snowden leaked to The Guardian, according to Reuters.